Regular Meeting #472 was held on October 14. 2017 at Mina Park with attendees of 19 active members and 1 guest.
After President N.N. called the meeting to order, Word of the Day was introduced, which was “grin” as a verb and a noun. TM J.Y. introduced it in a unique and effective way using the projector, and the word was used frequently in the following speeches and remarks.
In the business session Treasurer TM M.H. presented an Executive Committee proposal to raise the six-month dues for inactive members from 4,000 to 5,000 yen from April 2018 due to TMI fees raise and the recent exchange rate. The proposal was unanimously approved.
This meeting was the first of a series of meetings to be held on a trial basis – with 4 prepared speakers instead of 5, and Q & A sessions to follow. The main purpose of this trial is to stimulate and promote interactive communication.
Following the announcement by VPM M.K., TMoD K.T. explained the procedure in details.
1) After each speech, there will be 1 minute silence as before for allowing the
1 minute silence to write their feedbacks to the speaker.
2) Then TMoD announces the beginning of the question and answer session.
3) Speakers may solicit questions from the floor, or ask questions from his or her side
to the audience.
4) Time for the Q&A session is 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Timer hoists the
amber signal at 2 minutes, and the red signal at 2:30.
5) The speaker or questioner may still carry on to speak, but requested to wrap up.
No further questions will be asked after then.
6) Q & A session has nothing to do with qualification/disqualification.
Joke Master TM T.I. introduced some American jokes. They were intelligible, and provoked much laughter of the audience.
Then the prepared speech session started:
The first Speaker TM. K.K. ‘s speech was for Competent Communication Project #2 “Organize Your Speech”“ and the title was “Autumn Leaves” – which was very timely. He presented it with beautiful photos using the projector, and quoting poems in the beginning and the end.
The second Speaker TM Y,W.’s speech was for Advanced Manual “Specialty Speeches” Project #2 “Uplift the Spirit” and the title was “Japan”. He was planning to use the projector, but as he forgot to bring the data with him, he delivered the speech without visual aids. But he was eloquent enough that the audience didn’t feel such failure. He discussed the merit of Japan in a humorous way.
The third Speaker TM L.C. tackled Competent Communication Project #6 “Vocal Variety” with the speech titled “Choice”, and told about some choices he faced in his life.
The fourth Speaker TM N.S.’s project was Advanced “Interpretive Reading” #3 “Monodrama”. She read Martin Luther King’s speech “I have a Dream” with powerful expression.
After each speech we had Q&A session as a new trial. The session was very lively –perhaps much livelier than expected. In average 2 questions were asked form the floor to each speaker, and in most cases Q&A exceeded 2 minutes 30 seconds. Particularly in the case of 1st Speaker, 5 questions were asked including a question from the speaker himself. Apparently the purpose of interactive communication was achieved successfully.
Table Topics Master TM Y.U. asked questions relating to this season. Unfortunately, because we were behind the time schedule due to the lively Q&A sessions, Table Topics Master could call on 4 speakers only.
We curtailed the intermission a little bit, yet started the Evaluation Session more than 5 minutes later than scheduled.
General Evaluator TM M.K. introduced 4 Evaluators, namely TMs T.O., M.H., C.M., and Y.H., and each Evaluator gave appropriate feedbacks in light of project manuals. Then the General Evaluator concluded the session with succinct comments on every parts of the meeting.
In the Award Presentation:
TMoD Award was given to TM J. Y. for her unique idea in introducing Word of the Day, and as the vote results, Awardees were selected as follows:
Best Table Topics Speaker: TM H.S.
Best Evaluator: TM C.M.
Best Speaker: TM L.C.
At the end of the meeting, the guest immediately expressed her wish to join the club, and all the members were pleased.
The meeting was adjourned over 5 minutes later than scheduled.
By K. T.
Award winners
